Candid letters written by former U.S. First Lady Jackie Kennedy to a priest are set to go under the hammer in Ireland. President John F. Kennedy's wife wrote to Joseph Leonard, a Dublin-based priest, many times between 1950 and 1964 after meeting him on a trip to Europe, and the personal notes give an inside glimpse into her feelings about life and her relationship with the politician.
In one of the notes, Kennedy questioned her husband's fidelity and compared him to her own father, writing, "He's like my father in a way - loves the chase and is bored with the conquest - and once married needs proof he's still attractive, so flirts with other women and resents you. I saw how that nearly killed Mummy."
The notes reveal her feelings about marrying a man so fully immersed in the world of politics, insisting she will never be "just a sad little housewife", but she also compared her partner's ambition to that of William Shakespeare's tragic king Macbeth.
She also questioned her faith following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, writing, "I think God must have taken Jack to show the world how lost we would be without him... But that is a strange way of thinking to me - and God will have a bit of explaining to do to me if I ever see him."
The collection of 33 letters, written on personalised stationary, will go under the hammer along with a Christmas card signed by the former First Lady and her husband, and a note of condolence sent following Leonard's death in 1964.
The sale is due to take place at Sheppard's Irish Auction House in Durrow, Ireland on 10 June (14) and is expected to bring in more than $1.3 million (£812,000).

Country star Stephen Barker Liles is a new dad after his fiancee Jenna Kennedy gave birth to the couple's first son on Monday (02Dec13). The Love & Theft star’s newborn, Jett, arrived a day ahead of schedule and Liles has poured out his feelings to Country Weekly magazine.
He says, "It was the greatest rush I have ever experienced. Jenna and I are so thrilled to be parents. It's the best thing that has happened to us.
"Jenna was awesome, calm and collected. We checked in, stayed up all night and watched (sports news show) SportsCenter and Friends and listened to Mozart. We can't wait to take him home and for the whole world to meet him!"
Little Jett, who was born at a Nashville, Tennessee hospital, is the second Love & Theft baby of the year - Liles' bandmate Eric Gunderson and his wife Emily welcomed their first child, Camden William, in March (13).
The new parents are set to wed next year (14).

In celebration of Superman's 75th anniversary, and the release June 14 of the Son of Krypton's latest big-screen adventure Man of Steel, writer Larry Tye, author of Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero, Now Out In Paperback, contributes this essay exclusively to Hollywood.com on the unique qualities some of the actors who've played Superman — Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and Henry Cavill — have brought to the role.
Nobody is more All-American than Superman in his red cape, blue tights and bright yellow "S." So how is it that a Brit – a native of the Channel Islands and a product of a Buckinghamshire boarding school, with an English brogue no less – is donning the leotards and cape in the new Man of Steel movie?
Warner Bros' selection of Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill as our newest Superman seems ill-conceived if not profane, the more so coming just as America is celebrating its hero's milestone 75th birthday. But Cavill, a British heartthrob who played the First Duke of Suffolk on the Showtime series The Tudors, wouldn't be the first on-screen Man of Steel to defy convention and, in so doing, to soar higher than even his studio handlers dared dream.
Kirk Alyn, the original live-action Superman, was more a song-and-dance man than an actor, having studied ballet and performed in vaudeville and on Broadway in the 1930s and early forties. That's where he decided to trade in the name he was born with, John Feggo, Jr., for Kirk Alyn, which he felt was better suited to the stage. He appeared in chorus lines and in blackface, modeled for muscle magazines, and performed in TV murder mysteries in the days when only bars had TVs and only dead-end actors performed for the small screen. But he had experience in movie serials, if not in superheroes, so when he got a call from Columbia Pictures in 1948 asking if he was interested in trying out for Superman he jumped into his car and headed to the studio. Told to take off his shirt so the assembled executives could check out his build, the burly performer complied. Then producer-director Sam Katzman instructed him to take off his pants. "I said, 'Wait a minute.' They said, 'We want to see if your legs are any good,'" he recalled forty years later. They were good enough, and fifteen minutes after he arrived, Alyn was hired as the first actor to play a Superman whom fans could see as well as hear.
Alyn and his directors were smart enough not to try and reinvent the character that Bud Collyer had introduced so convincingly to the radio airwaves. “I visualized the guy I heard on the radio. That was a guy nothing could stop,” Alyn said. "That's why I stood like this, with my chest out, and a look on my face saying, 'Shoot me.'" His demeanor said "tough guy" but his wide eyes signaled approachability and mischievousness, just the way creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had imagined their Superman a decade before. Alyn understood, the same way Collyer had, that kids could spot a phony in an instant. If they didn't think Alyn was having fun – and that he believed in Superman – they wouldn't pay to see his movies. His young audience, after all, didn't just admire the Man of Steel. They loved him. Superman was not merely who they dreamed of becoming but who they were already, if only we could see. The good news for them was that Alyn was having fun, and he did believe in his character in a way that these pre-teens and teens appreciated even if movie reviewers wouldn't.
In the 1950s, when Superman was gearing up for television, producer Robert Maxwell and director Tommy Carr screened nearly two hundred candidates who were sure they were him. Most made their living as actors, although some were full-time musclemen. Nearly all, Carr said, "appeared to have a serious deficiency in their chromosome count." So thorough – and perhaps so frustrating – was their search that the executives stopped by the Mr. America contest in Los Angeles. One choice they never seriously considered, despite his later claims, was Kirk Alyn, who had done well enough for the serials but had neither the acting skills nor the looks around which to build a Superman TV series. The search ended the day a barrel-chested B-movie actor named George Reeves showed up on the studio lot.
Maxwell's co-producer had recognized Reeves in a Los Angeles restaurant, seeming "rather forlorn," and suggested he come in for a tryout. He did, the next morning, and "from that moment on he was my first choice," said Carr. "He looked like Superman with that jaw of his. Kirk had the long neck and fine features, but although I like Kirk very much, he never looked the Superman Reeves did." His tough-guy demeanor was no put-on. Standing six-foot-two and carrying 195 pounds, Reeves had been a light-heavyweight boxing champ in college and could have gone further if he hadn't broken his nose seven times and his mother hadn't made him step out of the ring.
The Superman TV show, like other incarnations of his story, turned around the hero himself. Collyer, the first flesh-and-blood Man of Steel, had set the standard. He lowered and raised the timbre of his voice as he switched between Superman and Clark, making the changeover convincing. Maxwell's wife Jessica, the TV dialogue director, would follow Reeves around the set urging him to do the same – but he just couldn't master the switch. The result: a Superman who sounded just like his alter ego. They both swallowed their words. They looked and acted alike. There was no attempt here to make Clark Kent into the klutz he was in the comics. No slouching; no shyness. Reeves portrayed the newsman the way he knew, and that Jessica's husband told him to: hard-boiled and rough-edged, Superman in a business suit. The only differences were that Reeves would shed his rubber muscles and add thick tortoise-shell glasses with no lenses – that was the sum total of his switch to Clark Kent.
But it worked. It worked because fans wanted to be fooled, and because of the way Reeves turned to the camera and made it clear he knew they knew his secret, even if Lois, Jimmy, and Perry didn't. This Superman had a dignity and self-assurance that projected even better on an intimate TV screen than it had in the movies. Reeves just had it somehow. He called himself Honest George, The People's Friend – the same kind of homespun language Jerry and Joe used for their creation – and he suspended his own doubts the way he wanted viewers to. He looked not just like a guy who could make gangsters cringe, but who believed in the righteousness of his hero's cause. His smile could melt an iceberg. His cold stare and puffed-out chest could bring a mob to its knees. Sure, his acting was workmanlike, but it won him generations of fans. Today, when those now grown-up fans call to mind their carefree youth, they think of his TV Adventures of Superman, and when they envision Superman himself, it is George Reeves they see.
Christopher Reeve was an even less likely choice when producers set out to find the right Superman for their 1970s motion picture extravaganza. It wasn't just his honey brown hair and 180 pounds that did not come close to filling out his six-foot-four frame. He had asthma and he sweated so profusely that a crew member would have to blow dry his armpits between takes. He was prep school and Ivy League, with a background in serious theater that made him more comfortable in England's Old Vic than its Pinewood movie lot. He was picked, as he acknowledged, 90% because he looked "like the guy in the comic book . . . the other 10% is acting talent." He also was a brilliant choice. He brought to the part irony and comic timing that harked back to the best of screwball comedy. He had dramatic good looks and an instinct for melding humanism with heroism. "When he walked into a room you could see this wasn't a conventional leading man, there was so much depth he had almost an old movie star feeling," says casting director Lynn Stalmaster. The bean counters loved his price: $250,000, or less than a tenth of what Marlon Brando would get for the modest role as Superman's dad. Director Richard Donner asked Reeve to try on his horned-rimmed glasses. Squinting back at him was Clark Kent. Even his name fit: Christopher Reeve assuming the part made famous by George Reeves. "I didn't find him," Donner would say throughout the production. "God sent him to me."
Superman changed with every artist who filled in his features, writer who scripted his adventures, and even the marketers and accountants who managed his finances and grew his audience. Each could claim partial ownership. Actors like Christopher Reeve did more molding and framing than anyone and could have claimed more proprietorship. With each scene shot it was clearer that he was giving the hero a different face as well as a unique personality. Reeve's Superman would be funnier and more human – if less powerful or intimidating – than any who had proceeded him. He was more of a Big Blue Boy Scout now, in contrast to Kirk Alyn's Action Ace and George Reeves's Man of Steel. In the hands of this conservatory-trained actor, Supes was getting increasingly comfortable baring his soul.
Picking up the role and the mythos now will be English actor Henry Cavill, whose first appearance on the big screen was as Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). Can Cavill make us believe the way Reeve, Reeves, and Alyn did, and make us embrace a British-accented Man of Metropolis?
History suggests he can – provided he and Warner Bros. remember the formula that has served their hero so brilliantly for 75 years and counting. It starts with the intrinsic simplicity of his story. Little Orphan Annie and Oliver Twist reminded us how compelling a foundling's tale can be, and Superman, the sole survivor of a doomed planet, is a super-foundling. The love triangle connecting Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Superman has a side for everyone, whether you are the boy who can't get the girl, the girl pursued by the wrong boy, or the conflicted hero. His secret identity might have been annoying if we hadn't been let in on the joke and we didn't have a hero hidden within each of us. He was not just any hero, but one with the very powers we would have: the strength to lift boulders and planets, the speed to outrun a locomotive or a bullet, and, coolest on anyone's fantasy list, the gift of flight.
Superpowers, however, are just half the equation. More essential is knowing what to do with them, and nobody has a more instinctual sense than Superman of right and wrong. He is an archetype of mankind at its pinnacle. Like John Wayne, he sweeps in to solve our problems. No "thank you" needed. Like Jesus Christ, he descended from the heavens to help us discover our humanity. He is neither cynical like Batman nor fraught like Spider-Man. For the religious, he can reinforce whatever faith they profess; for nonbelievers he is a secular messiah. The more jaded the era, the more we have been suckered back to his clunky familiarity. So what if the upshot of his adventures is as predictable as with Sherlock Holmes: the good guy never loses. That is reassuring.
There is no getting around the fact that the comic book and its leading man could only have taken root in America. What could be more U.S.A. than an orphaned outsider who arrives in this land of immigrants, reinvents himself, and reminds us that we can reach for the sky? Yet this flying Uncle Sam also has always been global in his reach, having written himself into the national folklore from Beirut to Buenos Aires. If Cavill acknowledges both sides of that legacy, the all-American and the all-world, then he should be able to reel back aging devotees and draw in new ones.
Larry Tye was an award-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. A lifelong Superman fan, Tye now runs a Boston-based training program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Satchel, as well as The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, and is currently writing a biography of Robert F. Kennedy.
Follow Hollywood.com on Twitter@Hollywood_com
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I have a startling admission to make: Mad Men is no longer my favorite show on Sunday nights. Now, when I sit around in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon, I'm wondering what the hell is going to happen that night on Game of Thrones not with Don Draper and his clan of merry misfits. It's because Season 6 of Mad Men has been wildly disappointing. There are no surprises, no excitement, and no overaching structure to connect one episode to the next.
Look at last night, most of the really memorable things were nothing but distractions from the main theme. Peggy's Realtor served no real purpose but to get Peggy to realize she doesn't want to move to the Upper East Side. Ginsberg's date really doesn't go anywhere interesting. Don calls looking for Dr. Rosen instead of Sylvia, who he's having an affair with, hammering home the point that he'd rather be with Arnie than his wife (something we established three episodes ago). Harry Hamlin is there for no good reason.
Speaking of which, William Mapother, who played Ethan on Lost was there for no reason either. Well, he was playing an insurance guy and Roger's old drug buddy, Randall, (Roger says, "He talked me off a ledge once" and I can only assume from Randy's behavior that the two shared some LSD together) who had a crazy idea for an ad campaign with a Molotov cocktail. He was quirky in a way that a Boston Legal character is, just for the sake of being odd. Back in the day we had people like Miss Blankenship, whose quirks commented on the existential crises of those around her. This guy is just a pastiche of tics and jargon with a silly idea no one takes seriously. He's also an excuse for a silly joke when Roger says, "Make sure this guy doesn't get lost," an obvious reference to his past show. Between that, the joke about the Second Avenue subway being finished (New Yorkers know that it still isn't), and last week's gratuitous 30 Rock reference, the show seems content being amused at itself rather than working toward some sort of revelation or universal truth. Sure, that still makes it a decent show, but it's not the layers deep drama that I used to enjoy.
There were actually two themes last night, that of fathers and sons and the political turning personal, both brought out by the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. The assassination was reported at an advertising awards dinner (Megan won!). This shadowed both the award ceremony at the beginning of Season 4 and Roger's daughter's wedding in Season 3 that went on even in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. It felt like well-worn territory, that we had seen the pettiness of daily events in the light of historical tragedy before, so this was nothing new. Also the firm's bad seats and the fact that their only nominations were for work Megan and Peggy did and both are no longer at the firm only points to Don Draper and his decline, something that we have seen repeatedly since last season.
But enough bitching. In the wake of MLK's death, Don has his children for the weekend and he has a chance to be a spectacularly bad father once again. First he forgets to pick the kids up and then drives them through a riot to get to his house. Finally, when Megan is going to take the kids to a vigil in Central Park, Bobby feigns a stomach ache. He's not supposed to watch TV because he's being punished so Don gets around his sentence and takes him to the movies. After a matinee of Planet of the Apes, where Bobby is bowled over by the cruelty that men are able to inflict on each other and their world, he has a touching moment with a black usher, letting him know, in his own little 10-year-old way (he's supposed to be 10, right?) that "everyone goes to the movies when they're sad" and that he is sad about King's death.
Don can't do anything. He seems to have an inability to connect with his children and he wants to help Bobby, but all he can do is help him get his Milk Duds open. Don can't deal with Bobby's feelings and what appears to be like some sort of anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsion, or borderline personality behavior (as evidenced by his ripping down the imperfect wallpaper). When Megan comes home, Don is once again the sad drunk (because we haven't seen enough of that) and he tells her that he never really loved his kids, he was just acting, but when they did something good like that, his heart wants to explode that he's so happy. And still, because of his own loveless childhood, he can't find a way to express it. Boo-freaking-hoo.
When Don sees Bobby awake in the middle of the night (probably picking at scabs or something) he gets into bed with him and tries to make it better. Don is literally on his level and asks Bobby what is wrong, the first step to making some sort of emotional connection. When Bobby says he's worried that Henry is going to get shot like MLK, Don responds glibly (and hilariously) that Henry is not important enough. A kid doesn't understand that, and Don takes an opportunity and totally blows it, offering no greater solace. Instead he goes outside and listens to the sirens and the disorder raging below. The night is dark and full of terrors. (Sorry, had to get my favorite GoT in there somewhere.) But Don is in the same position Bobby is and is in at the end of the episode.
Just like MLK had a dream that his son would live in a better world, so does Don, but the world he is giving over to his son is awful and scary. He's handing him a future where the apes take over and the Statue of Liberty lies in ruins on the beach. He can't really do anything to change that, but he can try to make Bobby feel better about it and give him some insight no adult ever gave him. But he can't. Instead he just stands there, anxious and inactive, pondering all the darkness that lurks around the twinkling of the city lights.
While it seemed like Ginsberg's date was going to be about him meeting a nice Jewish girl and maybe, finally, losing his virginity, it was not. It was about him and his father. His immigrant father set up him on a date and Ginsberg even admits that it feels very old world. That seems to be the dynamic between them, which was hinted at before, but it seemed initially like Ginsberg's father was somehow mentally deficient or senile. He's not, he's just embarrassing to Ginsberg because he has not been able to assimiliate into American culture. The disconnect between the old and new society that this show is steeped in is especially powerful here, because there is an even larger gap between Ginsberg the older's culture and Ginsberg the younger's.
There is no progress or movement in their relationship though. It's just stagnant. Ginsberg says that he doesn't want his father meddling and he can meet his own girls, but that is obviously not the case or else, well, a handsome young man such as himself wouldn't still be a virgin. His father wants Ginsberg to have a better life than him and he seems to be working for it, but the two of them have different definitions of what is important. Ginsbert the son wants to focus on his work and Ginsberg the father wants him to focus on the family. But maybe the old way is the right way? All of this is "tale as old as time" stuff and we didn't get an interesting spin on it in the episode. Sure there was some excellent banter between Ginsberg and his date but, like so much else in this episode, it was just a distraction from a plot that didn't have much of a point.
Pete Campbell was also dealing with his own father issues and took the death of MLK very hard. This had more to do with Pete's situation than his love of civil rights however. We learn this when he has the hilarious fight with Harry Crane, who is more upset about work than the death, and Pete has an irrationally outrageous reaction. He ends the fight by telling Harry, "Let me put this in terms you can understand, the man had a wife and four kids."
Pete is really missing the loss of his wife and daughter and, in this time of uncertainty, he wants the love and comfort they bring him. When everything was normal and boring in the suburbs he wanted out, but now that the novelty of the single life has worn off and the only person he has to talk to is the silent Chinese delivery man, he wants back into the fold. Again, this is a story we've seen again and again on this show. Pete is just Don Draper from two seasons ago. This isn't interesting or revelatory. What was interesting was Pete's fight with Harry and Pete actually not being a jerk about the news. When King was shot, I figured Pete would be the one who would care more about work than his feelings, but he wasn't. Of course he only cares so much because of his personal situation, but whatever it takes for Pete to do the right thing. And thanks for being the only surprise.
The women got short shrift this week, especially our lovely Peggy. She starts out wanting to buy a house on the Upper East Side just blocks away from Don Draper, continuing her transformation into the man himself. There is all this drama with her Realtor who is trying to take advantage of the unrest to get Peggy a good deal on her apartment and she ends up losing it. Aw, sad Peggy.
But sad Peggy quickly turns into happy Peggy. Her boyfriend Abe, who is working hard on a story about the riots in Harlem, tells her that he doesn't want to live there, he wants to raise their children somewhere where there is more diversity. Peggy doesn't say anything, but she seems to agree and sits on the couch smiling, happy that her man is envisioning their future and excited about the possibility of going out and doing her own thing. That's the thing about Peggy, she always seems to need a little push. I'm glad that she and Abe are still together. When her boss Ted was giving him dirty looks at the ad dinner I thought for sure she was going to leave him behind in some West Village flat while she moved on up to the east side with the Jeffersons.
Like Pete Campbell, Betty Draper had a bit of redemption last night. She called up and harassed Don in classic Betty harpy mode, but he deserved it. He forgot his kids and didn't even call, no wonder she's laying on the guilt extra thick. I like my Betty like I like a hamburger, fat and juicy, but I felt bad for her after Henry's big announcement that he was going to run for State Senate. "I can't wait for everyone to meet the real you," he tells her, but she doesn't want anyone to meet her. This is what she always wanted, a powerful, rich husband who will raise her profile, but now that it's happening, her beauty is gone. It's too late. "This is what I always wanted for you, what I always wanted for us," she says, but it's what she's always wanted for her.
Later she stands in the mirror and holds up a dress she can't fit into anymore. She plays with her hair that is frizzy from dying it so dark. She's tried so hard to be her real self and she just can't. It's going to be back to "reducing" and pouring herself into those tiny chic outfits once again, polishing the glossy shell of her exterior so her man will have something nice to show off.
It's the little details like Betty pulling at her hair in the mirror that make this show, and there were some great details. We had Peggy showing genuine compassion when hugging her secretary and Joan showing icy concern about Dawn, which came off as nothing but tokenism. We had Dawn saying to Don, "Getting here, well, took some time," with a perfect line reading that gave us so much insight into her life and the character. There was Megan, freaking out slightly at Don and Sylvia giving Don the once over with her eyes that said just about everything. That is what keeps me watching Mad Men and will continue to keep it good. Now let's just work on getting everything else back in order to make it great.
Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter @BrianJMoylan
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We know, we know. All the details of Lucasfilm’s sale to Disney, and the resulting news that new Star Wars movies will be produced, have been scrutinized with the fine tooth comb of Rebel Alliance battle strategists poring over Death Star schematics. What new intel could there possibly be to learn?
Well, an in-depth new feature in Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek magazine shows that, actually, there is still quite a lot to be gleaned about the mega-merger, what prompted George Lucas to hand over the reins to his multi-billion dollar company, and how exactly J.J. Abrams was convinced to make the jump to lightspeed. Here are seven things we learned from reporter Devin Leonard’s fascinating piece:
1. George Lucas May Really Be a Jedi MasterAt the May 2011 opening of the Star Wars: The Adventure Continues attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, Disney CEO Bob Iger and former Lucasfilm chairman Lucas engaged in a duel with plastic lightsabers. Iger quickly found himself outmatched. “[George] just has this way of carrying that light saber,” Iger recalls. “He was more adept at using it than me.”
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2. Lucasfilm’s Official Database of Star Wars Lore Is Called the "Holocron"Now diehard fans of the saga already know about the Holocron, a database named after a crystalline Jedi/Sith data storage device that keeps track of over 17,000 Star Wars character, over 2,000 planets, and some 30,000+ years of Galaxy Far, Far Away History. What they might not know, given the ubiquity in Star Wars fandom of Wookieepedia, is just how extensive Lucasfilm’s official Holocron is. Need to know exactly with whom Yoda visited during his 22 years of exile on Dagobah? The Holocron (curated by the affable Leland Chee, whose official title is “Keeper of the Holocron.”) can tell you!
RELATED: ‘Star Wars’ Authors Share How to Make the Best ‘Episode VII’
3. George Lucas says that Lucasfilm had been deep in talks with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford, even well before the Disney deal was finalized“We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation,” Lucas said. “So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them…I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.” For a major casting announcement like that, Lucasfilm’s history is never to let any one media outlet announce it for them. They would insist upon announcing news that major directly through StarWars.com.
4. J.J. Abrams Did Not Lie When He Said in November 2012 He Wasn’t Involved With Episode VIIFans were happy when he officially signed on to the project in January, but there definitely was a little bit of bickering about why exactly he was so adamant just two months before that he would not be involved. Well, he wasn’t lying to us, if that makes you feel any better. Abrams did not want to helm Episode VII as he thought it would be too similar to his work on the Star Trek franchise. But Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy stopped by Bad Robot’s Santa Monica production headquarters for a two-hour meeting in late December, and that two-hour meeting caused him to change his mind.
RELATED: ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Recap: The Fate of Ahsoka
5. Disney’s Purchase of Lucasfilm was First Discussed at a Disney Theme ParkSpecifically, the Brown Derby restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in May 2011, when Lucas was on-hand to open Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. Disneyphiles can tell you that the Brown Derby is a faithful recreation of the original Hollywood landmark (immortalized in a classic I Love Lucy episode in which Lucy Ricardo stalks William Holden), the kind of place where lots of wheeling and dealing would happen. What better venue for an entertainment merger as significant as the Disney-Lucasfilm deal to take place than at its facsimile?
6. Steve Jobs Let Disney CEO Bob Iger Know How He Really Felt About Some of the Studios’ MoviesThe Apple co-founder was the largest shareholder on the Disney board of directors. Maybe that’s why he felt he could call Iger to say, “Hey, Bob, I saw the movie you just released last night, and it sucked.” (No specific titles were mentioned in the article, but we choose to believe he was referring to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.) Despite that criticism, Iger says that his relationship with Jobs was “additive rather than the other way around.”
7. That Star Wars Live Action Series Could Still HappenThough he’s not quoted directly in the BusinessWeek article about this, Iger has apparently confirmed that discussions about the long-rumored live-action Star Wars TV series, tentatively titled Star Wars: Underworld, are still taking place.
You see, Padawan readers, much to learn there still is.
Follow Christian Blauvelt on Twitter @Ctblauvelt
[Photo Credit: Todd Anderson/AP Photo/Disney]
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Presidents were this year's hot item on the big and small screens, but pop culture has always been obsessed with dressing up actors to look like the men who fill our text books. Inspired by 2012's trend, Hollywood.com has combed through cinematic history to whip up this handy infographic, chronicling decades of Presidential appearances in pop culture. In the end, one thing is clear: Futurama did a lot in the name of presidential representation.
Check below the image for the key, revealing the actor assigned to each president.
Click to Enlarge
David Morse as George Washington in John Adams
William Daniels as John Adams in 1776
Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in Paris
Burgess Meredith as James Madison in Magnificent Doll
Morgan Wallace as James Monroe in Alexander Hamilton
Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in Amistad
Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson in The President's Lady
Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren in Amistad
David Clennon as William Henry Harrison in Tecumseh (1994)
John Tyler in Futurama
James K. Polk in Futurama
James Gammon as Zachary Taylor in One Man's Hero
Millard Fillmore has never been portrayed
Franklin Pierce in Futurama
James Buchanan has never been portrayed
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln
Dennis Clark as Andrew Johnson in The Conspirator
Kevin Kline as Ulysses S. Grant in Wild Wild West
John DiMaggio as Rutherford B. Hayes in Futurama
Francis Sayles as James A. Garfield in The Night Riders
Maurice LaMarche as Chester A. Arthur in Futurama
Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in Futurama
Roy Gordon as Benjamin Harrison in Futurama
Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in Futurama
Brian Keith as William McKinley in Rough Riders
Robin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Walter Massey as William Howard Taft in The Greatest Game Ever Played
Bob Gunton as Woodrow Wilson in Iron Jawed Angels
Warren G. Harding in Futurama
Calvin Coolidge in Futurama
Herbert Hoover in Futurama
Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the Hudson
Gary Sinise as Harry S. Truman in Truman
Tom Selleck as Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-Day
Bruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy Thirteen Days
Randy Quaid as Lyndon B. Johnson in LBJ: The Early Years
Dan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in Dick
Dick Crockett as Gerald Ford in Pink Panther Strikes Again
Dan Aykroyd as Jimmy Carter in Saturday Night Live
James Brolin as Ronald Reagan in The Reagans
James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush in W.
Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton in The Special Relationship
Timothy Bottoms as George W. Bush in That's My Bush!
Jordan Peele as Barack Obama in Key and Peele
[Photo Credit: Hollywood.com]
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2012 was a heated year for Presidential politics, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney vying for the position of Commander-in-Chief and the battle of ideologies dominating every facet of pop culture. Movies and television also did their fair share of respectful homage-ing to the Head of State, with Daniel Day-Lewis' stirring portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg's Lincoln (and the vampire-hunting alternative), Jordan Peele finding room to mock our sitting Prez in Key and Peele, and Bill Murray finding the swinger side of America's only four-termer, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in this weekend's Hyde Park on the Hudson. History teachers across the country have never been prouder of what they do than in the last 365 days.
Presidents were this year's hot item on the big and small screens, but pop culture has always been obsessed with dressing up actors to look like the men who fill our text books. Inspired by 2012's trend, Hollywood.com has combed through cinematic history to whip up this handy infographic, chronicling decades of Presidential appearances in pop culture. In the end, one thing is clear: Futurama did a lot in the name of presidential representation.
Check below the image for the key, revealing the actor assigned to each president.
Click to EnlargeDavid Morse as George Washington in John AdamsWilliam Daniels as John Adams in 1776Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson in ParisBurgess Meredith as James Madison in Magnificent DollMorgan Wallace as James Monroe in Alexander HamiltonAnthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in AmistadCharlton Heston as Andrew Jackson in The President's LadyNigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren in AmistadDavid Clennon as William Henry Harrison in Tecumseh (1994)John Tyler in FuturamaJames K. Polk in FuturamaJames Gammon as Zachary Taylor in One Man's HeroMillard Fillmore has never been portrayedFranklin Pierce in FuturamaJames Buchanan has never been portrayedDaniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in LincolnDennis Clark as Andrew Johnson in The ConspiratorKevin Kline as Ulysses S. Grant in Wild Wild WestJohn DiMaggio as Rutherford B. Hayes in FuturamaFrancis Sayles as James A. Garfield in The Night RidersMaurice LaMarche as Chester A. Arthur in Futurama Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in FuturamaRoy Gordon as Benjamin Harrison in FuturamaPat McCormick as Grover Cleveland in FuturamaBrian Keith as William McKinley in Rough RidersRobin Williams as Theodore Roosevelt in Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianWalter Massey as William Howard Taft in The Greatest Game Ever PlayedBob Gunton as Woodrow Wilson in Iron Jawed AngelsWarren G. Harding in FuturamaCalvin Coolidge in FuturamaHerbert Hoover in FuturamaBill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park on the HudsonGary Sinise as Harry S. Truman in TrumanTom Selleck as Dwight D. Eisenhower in Ike: Countdown to D-DayBruce Greenwood as John F. Kennedy Thirteen DaysRandy Quaid as Lyndon B. Johnson in LBJ: The Early YearsDan Hedaya as Richard Nixon in DickDick Crockett as Gerald Ford in Pink Panther Strikes AgainDan Aykroyd as Jimmy Carter in Saturday Night LiveJames Brolin as Ronald Reagan in The ReagansJames Cromwell as George H. W. Bush in W.Dennis Quaid as Bill Clinton in The Special RelationshipTimothy Bottoms as George W. Bush in That's My Bush!Jordan Peele as Barack Obama in Key and Peele
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Illustration by Hollywood.com; Photo Credits: Comedy Central (12); HBO (4); Columbia Pictures (2); Warner Bros (2); DreamWorks (2); 20th Century Fox (3); NBC(2); Touchstone Pictures; Universal Pictures; Turner Pictures; Paramount Pictures; Orion Pictures; Roadside Attractions; Republic Pictures; TNT; Buena Vista Pictures; Focus Features; A&amp;E; New Line; United Artists; Showtime; Lionsgate; iStockphoto]
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Yesterday’s news that Disney purchased Lucasfilm and now plans to make Episodes VII, VIII, and IX of a new Star Wars trilogy was a bombshell that hit with the force of a superlaser slamming into Alderaan. But in a good way! Theories are abounding about the direction the saga may now take. (Check out Moviefone's take here.) Only one thing is certain, though. When "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." next pops on screen, it won't be preceded by that symphonic 20th Century Fox fanfare.
George Lucas and new Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy say they already have a treatment for a new Star Wars trilogy, though we don't know who's written it or anything at all of what it will be about. The thing is, Star Wars: Episode VII could take the franchise literally anywhere, because that legendary Galaxy Far, Far Away is one of the most expansive, detailed fictional universes ever created. Lucas, and the writers and artists he’s authorized to explore his galactic playground through the franchise’s Expanded Universe of novels, comics, and videogames, has created a Star Wars galaxy full of hundreds of memorable planets, alien races, spaceships, and nifty gizmos, thousands of characters, and millennia of galactic history. Quite simply, there’s no other legendarium riper for the cinematic picking. The six films that have already been made barely scratch the surface of what diehard fans know the Star Wars galaxy has to offer.
The funny thing is, until yesterday, it seemed entirely likely that we would never see a new Star Wars movie on the big screen again. George Lucas quickly reduced his initial plan in the early ‘80s for nine to twelve episodes of the space opera to six, with Return of the Jedi as the natural end point. The Emperor and his forces were destroyed, Darth Vader was redeemed, and Luke Skywalker could now begin the task of rebuilding the Jedi Order. All wrapped up in a neat bow, huh?
Well, not quite. Even if the Skywalker family had come full circle, common sense would tell you that the Star Wars galaxy itself would still have a lot of challenges to face. Namely, that the Empire still controls just about everything, even without old Papa Palpatine around to administer his unique form of lightning-based governing. Through a series of several-dozen novels—and a few graphic novels—written by various authors, Lucasfilm has allowed for the period after Return of the Jedi to be explored extensively. These books show how the Rebel Alliance becomes the New Republic and continues to beat back the Empire until the once-mighty dictatorship is just a sad little rump state full of petty, scheming Moffs. These also show Han Solo and Princess Leia getting married, having three kids named Jacen, Jaina, and Anakin (after the lad's grandfather), and Luke setting up an academy to train a new Jedi Order. Right now, the timeline after Return of the Jedi has been explored up to about 40 years after the events of that film, and Luke, Leia, and Han are nearing the galactic equivalent of AARP status, meaning that many of the novels published today focus as much, if not more, on the “next generation” of Jedi. Keep in mind, Lucasfilm has established that all of these books are canon. So that means this established galactic history, along with the template provided by the recent, highly successful reboot of another space-set franchise, may offer a roadmap for what we can expect from Episode VII. Here are eight points to consider when pondering what direction the new trilogy will take.
1. Will Episodes VII-IX still be about the Skywalker family?
I would venture to say, yes. George Lucas has made it very clear that the core arc of his big-screen saga is the story of the Skywalker family. That’s not to say that other non-Skywalker-centric movies could be produced. Especially considering that, in an investors’ phone call yesterday, Disney stated they’re looking at producing a new Star Wars movie every two to three years, beyond even this new trilogy. Joe Johnston, director of Captain America: The First Avenger and creator of Boba Fett back in 1978, may yet get to make the Fett movie he's talked about for ages! But when we’re talking about the actual Episodes, those have always been about the Skywalker clan, their discovery of their unique gifts, and their struggle to maintain the purity of their intentions in a chaotic universe. In that family, and in the particular father-son dynamic of Anakin and Luke, Lucas found a mythopoetic struggle between darkness and light, between intent and consequence—in short, a heroes’ journey worthy of his spiritual muse, Joseph Campbell. If Episode VII isn’t directly about Luke or Leia, it could very well be about Leia’s children or Luke’s son, Ben. That said, is Star Wars: The Next Generation really what the fans want to see?
2. Could Luke, Leia, and Han be recast?
Let’s face it. What Star Wars fans really want to see are more adventures with Luke, Han, and Leia. Their swashbuckling heroism and screwball interplay have pretty much set the standard to which all subsequent action-adventure films aspire. But it also seems pretty unlikely that we’d have fifty-something Carrie Fisher, sixty-something Mark Hamill, and seventy-something Harrison Ford playing these characters. Luckily, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot brilliantly established the idea that you can replace beloved actors in iconic roles. Who would have imagined anyone as James T. Kirk but William Shatner? Or anyone donning Spock’s pointy ears but Leonard Nimoy? Yet Chris Pine ably took his seat in the captain’s chair, and Zachary Quinto proved himself a fine 21st century logician. The new Star Wars trilogy could indeed take place just a few years after Return of the Jedi…but with new actors in the roles made famous by Hamill, Fisher, and Ford. If that’s the case, could any of the Expanded Universe novels or comics be tapped as story material for the new trilogy? Yes, and there are three likely contenders.

David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas consists of six stories set in various periods between 1850 and a time far into Earth's post-apocalyptic future. Each segment lives on its own the previous first person account picked up and read by a character in its successor creating connective tissue between each moment in time. The various stories remain intact for Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) Lana Wachowski's and Andy Wachowski's (The Matrix) film adaptation which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival. The massive change comes from the interweaving of the book's parts into one three-hour saga — a move that elevates the material and transforms Cloud Atlas in to a work of epic proportions.
Don't be turned off by the runtime — Cloud Atlas moves at lightning pace as it cuts back and forth between its various threads: an American notary sailing the Pacific; a budding musician tasked with transcribing the hummings of an accomplished 1930's composer; a '70s-era investigatory journalist who uncovers a nefarious plot tied to the local nuclear power plant; a book publisher in 2012 who goes on the run from gangsters only to be incarcerated in a nursing home; Sonmi~451 a clone in Neo Seoul who takes on the oppressive government that enslaves her; and a primitive human from the future who teams with one of the few remaining technologically-advanced Earthlings in order to survive. Dense but so was the unfamiliar world of The Matrix. Cloud Atlas has more moving parts than the Wachowskis' seminal sci-fi flick but with additional ambition to boot. Every second is a sight to behold.
The members of the directing trio are known for their visual prowess but Cloud Atlas is a movie about juxtaposition. The art of editing is normally a seamless one — unless someone is really into the craft the cutting of a film is rarely a post-viewing talking point — but Cloud Atlas turns the editor into one of the cast members an obvious player who ties the film together with brilliant cross-cutting and overlapping dialogue. Timothy Cavendish the elderly publisher could be musing on his need to escape and the film will wander to the events of Sonmi~451 or the tortured music apprentice Robert Frobisher also feeling the impulse to run. The details of each world seep into one another but the real joy comes from watching each carefully selected scene fall into place. You never feel lost in Cloud Atlas even when Tykwer and the Wachowskis have infused three action sequences — a gritty car chase in the '70s a kinetic chase through Neo Seoul and a foot race through the forests of future millennia — into one extended set piece. This is a unified film with distinct parts echoing the themes of human interconnectivity.
The biggest treat is watching Cloud Atlas' ensemble tackle the diverse array of characters sprinkled into the stories. No film in recent memory has afforded a cast this type of opportunity yet another form of juxtaposition that wows. Within a few seconds Tom Hanks will go from near-neanderthal to British gangster to wily 19th century doctor. Halle Berry Hugh Grant Jim Sturgess Jim Broadbent Ben Whishaw Hugo Weaving and Susan Sarandon play the same game taking on roles of different sexes races and the like. (Weaving as an evil nurse returning to his Priscilla Queen of the Desert cross-dressing roots is mind-blowing.) The cast's dedication to inhabiting their roles on every level helps us quickly understand the worlds. We know it's Halle Berry behind the fair skinned wife of the lunatic composer but she's never playing Halle Berry. Even when the actors are playing variations on themselves they're glowing with the film's overall epic feel. Jim Broadbent's wickedly funny modern segment a Tykwer creation that packs a particularly German sense of humor is on a smaller scale than the rest of the film but the actor never dials it down. Every story character and scene in Cloud Atlas commits to a style. That diversity keeps the swirling maelstrom of a movie in check.
Cloud Atlas poses big questions without losing track of its human element the characters at the heart of each story. A slower moment or two may have helped the Wachowskis' and Tykwer's film to hit a powerful emotional chord but the finished product still proves mainstream movies can ask questions while laying over explosive action scenes. This year there won't be a bigger movie in terms of scope in terms of ideas and in terms of heart than Cloud Atlas.
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